Parents apparently don’t do a great job choosing lower-calorie options for themselves when faced with calorie information on menu boards — but they do make low cal choices for their kids, says a new study. [More]

The Wall Street Journal Health Blog noticed that both health care reform bills currently making their way through our lovely government have provisions that require vending machines to display the calorie counts of items inside. [More]

California and New York City already require chains to display calorie counts alongside menu items, but if two Members of Congress have their way, menu labeling legislation will soon apply to chains and fast food restaurants throughout the nation. The Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) Act introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) would go even farther than existing state and local regulations by requiring chains to disclose fat, carbohydrate and salt content on their printed menus. The food industry, of course, is supporting a more palatable bill with an equally snappy acronym…

The New York City Board of Health will vote today on a new regulation requiring calories on menu boards in New York City. The former rule was shot down by a federal judge who ruled that the regulation’s criteria for determining which restaurants would be required to post calorie information on their menus was illegal.

NYC just isn’t giving up. They’ve rewritten the menu labeling regulation so that rather than making the menu rules dependent on whether or not the restaurant was already supplying nutritional information, all restaurants with more than 15 locations nationally will be required to put calorie info on the menus. This change puts them in accordance with federal law.

The California Assembly has passed legislation that will require chain outlets with 15 or more locations to place calorie info on fast food menu boards and nutrition information on restaurant menus. The rule applies only to standard menu items and not to daily specials or custom orders.

Seattle will be going trans fat free, according to the CSPI. Not only that, Kings County is also adding a calorie labeling requirement similar to that of NYC. NYC is currently being sued over the regulation by the a restaurant group representing most fast food chains. Subway has complied with the requirement and their menu is being used as an example in court.